Forsight Optics Abandons Integrated Assembly: What Has Full-Chain Domestic FTIR R&D Achieved?

Recently, Yingla Optics Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Yingla Optics) announced that it has been selected for the eighth batch of the national-level "Little Giant" list of specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative enterprises.

How did this domestic infrared spectrometer company, founded only in 2018, achieve this feat?

The criteria for national-level specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative "Little Giants" rest on three main lines: focus on niche markets, mastery of core technologies, and a position at key points in the industrial chain. Nearly all of Yingla Optics' product portfolio revolves around Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, spanning research-grade laboratory FTIR, industrial online monitoring, infrared microscopes, near-infrared dual-channel systems and fully domestic infrared remote sensing, forming a spectroscopy product line that is deeply vertical yet horizontally restrained.

Yingla Optics' distinctive approach is its abandonment of the "integration and assembly" model from the outset, as stated in its public communications. In the domestic infrared spectrometer industry, purchasing core optical components such as interferometers, detectors and beamsplitters for final system integration was a widely discussed path.

Public information shows that Yingla Optics opted for full-chain in-house development of optomechanical structures, circuit control, embedded systems and host computer software, starting from the first circuit board and the first interferometer, keeping core stages in its own hands. To date, it has accumulated nearly 30 related patents, with core elements such as interferometers, optical path structures and spectral analysis software achieved in-house.

The localization rate in the mid-range market provides Yingla Optics with structural conditions for volume growth, but whether the company can convert these conditions into sustained market share still needs to be verified by independent sales data.

In terms of product portfolio, FOLI Optics is positioned precisely at the junction of "scaling the mid-range while attacking the high end." The FOLI20 offers up to 0.2 cm^-1 resolution (some parameter tables also list configurations of ≤0.25 cm^-1 and ≤0.1 cm^-1), targeting research-grade applications such as materials, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductor thin-film inspection. According to the company, the FOLI30V fills a gap in domestically produced vacuum FTIR systems, while the FTmicro10 targets microspectroscopy, an entry point for microscopic analysis long dominated by imported instruments.

In terms of commercial validation, verifiable public tender records are concentrated in the university and research market: FOLI Optics won the Nanjing University multichannel in-situ online FTIR project, valued at RMB 896,000, and was listed as the equipment brand for Peking University's FOLI20 procurement project, with a winning unit price of RMB 735,000.

These records show that its products have entered real customers' procurement decision processes, but their individual contract values and scale are not yet enough to shake the existing high-end market structure. This indicates that the products have moved beyond the laboratory prototype stage.

From an industry-chain perspective, the significance of FOLI Optics being named a "Little Giant" lies in its push toward domestic self-sufficiency across core components, analytical algorithms, and full-system integration, directly supporting independent and controllable supply chains in downstream sectors such as semiconductor thin-film inspection, online chemical quality control, and materials R&D.

Objectively, however, full-stack in-house development also means it must shoulder alone the yield ramp-up costs of every core stage. At its current revenue scale of tens of millions of yuan, bearing these costs alone is a genuine financial constraint, not merely a choice of technology roadmap.

FOLI Optics' "Little Giant" status therefore shows that, in the niche of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, it has demonstrated through full-stack in-house development that a domestically built system can reach "usable" and is advancing toward "easy to use," while its real-world product deliveries have also exposed gaps in the upstream supply chain that have yet to be closed.

Replacing high-end scientific instruments with domestic alternatives is an endurance race across the entire chain, from beamsplitter yield to detector sensitivity. Yansai Optics has already completed the first half, proving that its technical approach is viable. The pace of the second half will depend on whether it can loosen, one by one, the chokepoint links still held upstream while sustaining its own commercial viability.